Customer Reviews

Wildest Organ in Town / Club

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I thought this cd showed a man that could play the Hammond well. His style is all his own. For anyone collecting music of Hammond Organ work, I would recommend this cd.

Jim

Billy Preston's roaring Hammond B-3 proves in less than 3 minutes, why the Beatles and the Stones were so eager to hire him for their studio sessions. This is pure, superfunky souljazz from his earlier days and probably one of the best Hammond-albums ever made, right up there with the mid-70s work by Jimmy McGriff.

This album is the worst organ album I have heard. The arrangements don't really match Billy's greatest music, such as his work with The Beatles, or hit songs like "Will It Go Round in Circles".

The songs on the CD pair are almost all covers and they are boring, poorly arranged and to make things worse, Billy hardly varies his tone from beginning to end - its all scream all the way, and a rather unpleasant sound at that.

The featured singers on the live album (the CD offers two original LPs) are the Soul brothers and I have seldom heard such flat and lifeless singing on a recording.

I was expecting smoking grooves, and tasteful organ sounds with lots of variation but Billy lost inspiration on these tracks. None of the covers actually cut it. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Otis Redding and other covers are so ordinary you want skip to the next track. The cover of Summertime is so bad its embarrassing, despite Billy's intention to entertain his live audience.

It is a tough call to keep listeners engaged when you are playing rock or pop covers without vocals and these recordings don't add anything to do that.

If you want to hear better pop/rock instrumental organ from the period, I would suggest Booker T and the MGs, albums such as Hip Hug Her are worth checking out. Granted, Billy has a bigger sound with more drive than Booker T. But Booker T kept his songs very short and a lot more together.

Ultimately there are many great funky organ recordings by other masters - Check out Jimmy Smith's "Back at the Chicken Shack" for one example. Preston's CD just isn't one of them.